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Here is the full translation of Nomura, Kitase, and Toriyama, and Hamaguchi’s interview from the FF7R Famitsu feature! Nomura talks about Jessie's popularity, the decision to include the Masssage Parlour scene, comments about the next installment's release, and more! Kitase discusses how it’s like working with a new generation of game developers, explains a bit more about the scene with Sephiroth and Cloud at the Edge of Creation, and refers to the Remake as the “New FFVII Story.” Toriyama mentions that the staff who worked on the original game wanted to create a completely new game while younger staff wanted to stay true to the original. Hamaguchi explains more about the development process as well as how they came up with the battle system, what type of system they have planned for Part 2, and more!

DIRECTOR TETSUYA NOMURA INTERVIEW —Now that the game has been released, how are you feeling?

Nomura: Well first off, I feel very relieved. Although there’s still a long way to go on the road to completing the entire story, we are now able to see exactly which direction we will be heading.

—From the game’s battle system to its story to the elaborate details of Midgar’s various environments, including songs that sometimes only play in one scene, the game is full of a richness that has been carefully crafted, which shows that a lot of time and effort was spent creating this game. The staff must have been very enthusiastic, right?

Nomura: I think it’s due to the staff’s love for FFVII. The enthusiasm from the fans also helped propel us forward.

—Are there any elements from either the Original game or part of the compilation that you wanted to make a reality or something that you wanted to have in the past game that then added into this game?

Nomura: Definitely the world itself as well as how richly the people are portrayed. With all the different compilations gathered, it was rather easy to create the world. I think we were able to convey the importance of the areas seamlessly.

—FF7R really digs deep into the Original Game’s story, but there is a surprising development towards the end of the game. With Remakes, there’s always a faction of people who don’t want anything changed, but there are also those who actually want things to be changed. Were there discussions among the creators on whether or not you should change things?

Nomura: Since the concept of FF7R was already decided from the beginning, there wasn’t that much discussion. However, since each individual had different ways of perceiving things, we did discuss exactly how far we will change the story. I believe that I was the one who actually put a stop on several ideas towards the latter half of development (laughs).

—The Remake contains the “Whispers of Fate” that are not present in the original story, but what was the intent of having this presence? In English, they’re called the Whispers, but in Japanese they’re called the “Feelers.” Is there a specific reason for this difference, for example if the word “Feeler” was the origin of the name?

Nomura: Nojima-san actually requested us to give the Whispers an eerie aura. Initially, the Whispers were designed to be made out of small particles of sand that crumbled while still maintaining its shape, but also unclear in form. We then created an image of them wearing a robe, but more so than that, when we had to make a lot of them appear together, that’s when their form took a clear shape. The word “feeler” means to sense and to touch, but at the moment I cannot say anymore than that.

—Those who come into contact with Aerith can see the Whispers, right? Also, was Aerith able to see them from the beginning?

Nomura: People can see the Whispers when they come into contact with Aerith. However, at the moment I am unable to tell you when Aerith started seeing them.

—Instead of always being on edge, Cloud seems to behave more cooly but instead comes off as uncool to those around him. Aerith also seems a bit more mature than the original’s portrayal of her, and Barret seems a more unhinged and tense. The characters all seem to have a new side of them now. What kind of concepts did you use to add to the characters in this game?

Nomura: I personally think that the characters still have the same image as they did before, but with much more expressions now, and adding voices also created a large impact. This was my interpretation of the characters at the start, but since the original game required the player to imagine the type of reactions the characters would have, I think that this caused there to be different images of the characters. As time passed, I’m sure that those images of the characters had changed as well. I think that the errors in each individual player’s interpretation is in itself an interesting part of the game.

—Jessie has a lot of scenes in the Remake and has become quite a popular character. Were her scenes planned from the beginning, or were they something that was added midway through development?

Nomura: It was planned from the beginning. However, I did not expect her to be this popular though!

—The three new characters in Wall Market, Andrea Rhodea, Madam M, and Chocobo Sam, left quite an impression. What was created first, the characters’ personalities or their designs? Also, how did the concept of the Massage Parlour come about?

Nomura: At first, the characters’ personalities weren’t that detailed. We didn’t plan for their designs to be that rich either. However, I think that the voices and acting played a great role for them. In regards to the hand massage, in a city like that, well, the maturity rating would probably go up, so we couldn’t go further with what we had.

—Characters such as Leslie and Kyrie appeared in the light novels, but what was the background on bringing them into the Remake? For example, was it for fan service or something else?

Nomura: Since the stories are part of the Compilation, Nojima-san and myself had plans for them to be included from the beginning. We thought that it would be natural for them to appear in that time and place within the story, so we decided to leave them there. In regards to what happens to them after the events in the Remake, I recommend that players read the light novel “Final Fantasy 7 TURKS: The Kids Are All Right.”

—In regards to the battle system, it contains a fusion of both command and action elements, and each character has a different fighting style. By choosing different character moves, players are able to form various effective strategies, making for a very refreshing experience. Also, the acting and conversations that the characters have during battle also gives a fresh spin on each battle. I’m sure that this was made possible by trial and error, but what was the most difficult part in doing all of this?

Nomura: A real time action battle requires a sense of nervousness and realism, but we couldn’t discard the form and battle of the original game’s command RPG style. As a result, we went through a lot of trial and error to find a perfect harmony for the two. We decided early on to allow for a slow motion sequence to take place to allow players the advantage of being able to select their actions, but there was a long period of time that we couldn’t do it properly. It was largely thanks to the staff for tying in the ATB system to perfect this as well.

—Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

Nomura: We know that everyone wants the next installment to be released quickly. We would also like to deliver it as soon as possible. Since we were able to see the line of quality from the first installment, we hope to make the next installment even better in quality that will make for an even greater experience. We hope to release it as soon as possible, so please wait a bit more. I think we can clearly convey the direction when we officially announce the next installment, so we hope you can look forward to it!

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PRODUCER YOSHINORI KITASE INTERVIEW

—From the time that the game was announced at E3 during 2015, the world focused their attention on the game, and after releasing footage of the game’s progress through a promotional video at E3 during 2019, the expectations from the fans has only increased. I’m sure you felt quite a lot of pressure at that time, but now that the game is finally released, how do you feel?

Kitase: I feel relieved that we were able to successfully approach both veteran fans who have been there since the beginning as well as new fans. I feel like right now, the expectations are even higher than before the game was released, and that gives us a lot of motivation to develop the next installment.

—Before the game was released, you mentioned that the hurdle that you needed to overcome was that of the player’s imagination that they have constructed in their minds for the Remake. After seeing the reception from the players post-release, do you feel that you have overcome that hurdle?

Kitase: Well, not just for me, but the power of the entire development staff combined was great. Most of them were fans from the beginning who also played the original game when it first came out. Thanks to that, they knew what kind of image fans probably had for the Remake, and I think we were able to overcome the hurdles that way.

—The game was released worldwide during a time when COVID-19 was affecting the entire world, but did that have any impacts on the game’s development? Also, before the game was released, promotional events were cancelled and the distribution of the game was also shipped ahead of schedule. There seemed to have been a lot of hard decisions to make depending on the situation…

Kitase: In terms of development, we only had the debugging phase left, which meant that the game was pretty much already complete, so there was not much impact from the virus. However, it was a pity that many promotional events were cancelled, and people were not able to really celebrate the release of the game. Luckily, through the means of the downloadable version, we were able to deliver some fun during a very stressful time where it was hard for people to even leave their homes. I hope that we were able to give them at least a moment of reprieve through the game.

—In regards to the FFVII Remake production, was there anything you were particular about?

Kitase: In the latter half of the story, there’s a scene where Cloud and Sephiroth have a confrontation. I wanted the scenery of that segment to show a starry sky that represents the overall themes of FFVII, and the art design team was able to bring that image to life.

Kitase: That’s all thanks to the careful attention that the Co-Directors Hamaguchi and Toriyama as well as the development staff put in making this game. I started game development ever since the Super Famicom console, so I’m used to the type of “cut” and “reuse” way of production. However, the new generation of games require a sense of reality, so that former way of developing games has become obsolete. The current generation of game development staff have that new type of conscience when creating games, so it’s thanks to their enthusiasm that we were able to make this possible.

—I’m sure that there are several younger development staff who never played the original FFVII, so were there any instances where there was a bit of a generation gap?

Kitase: Not really. But I guess when we wanted to give an example from a movie or something, we wouldn’t bring up a reference from an old movie that they probably wouldn’t know (laughs).

—Are there any elements from either the Original game or part of the Compilation that you wanted to make a reality or something that you wanted to have in the past game that was then added into this game?

Kitase: I suppose that would be making everything in 3D with a 360 degree scope of the world. Especially when you’re looking up into the sky of Midgar or looking down towards the slums, I’m really glad that we were able to give the city a sense of realism.

—As a gamer, was there anything in particular from FF7R that surprised or impressed you?

Kitase: This is connected with my answer to the previous question, but yes, being able to look above towards the sky from the slums, thinking “wow, you can see the sky after all!” For 23 years, I imagined the slums to be under a lot of pressure and cloaked in darkness. In the Remake, you can see a different side of the city during the day that you could not see in the original game, and I thought that was really fun.

—You were involved with the initial level design of the Sector 5 Mako Reactor from when the characters infiltrate the reactor to their escape, but were there any other parts that you also were involved in?

Kitase: I was also in charge of the initial stage level design for the scene at the top of the Shinra Building. The scene where Cloud is about to fall off the rooftop but is saved by Tifa is a callback and answer to the Sector 5 Mako Reactor scene where Tifa couldn’t save Cloud from falling.

Kitase: Director Nomura as well as Co-Director Hamaguchi and Toriyama hoped to be able to keep all the parts of the original that fans have come to love. However, we also wanted to add several surprises that would balance out the story too. I’m sure there are people who wish to experience the exact same story and relive memories. However, if we were to do that, then all we would be doing is just adding to the original experience, which would cause the Remake to lose its significance. I think that we were able to successfully revive the story by adding new elements for the new generation of a “New FFVII.”

—Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

Kitase: The new FFVII’s story has only just begun. Please look forward to the story from here on out! --------- CO-DIRECTOR TORIYAMA MOTOMU INTERVIEW

—Now that the game has been released, how are you feeling?

Toriyama: I’m really glad that despite the abrupt change in lifestyle [due to COVID-19], this game is able to deliver entertainment to people around the world in the comfort of their own homes. There was some skeptism from fans when we announced before the release of the game that the FF7 Remake will only take place in Midgar, but because the game dug so deeply into the world of FF7, I was relieved to hear that a lot of people were extremely satisfied with the game.

Toriyama: We thought about how we can revive the entity of FFVII using the latest technology as well as capturing the richness of the original. The time it took to oversee one scene or area was great, and in order to do so, we needed much more staff than what we had back in the day. Each and every staff had their own things they were particular about, and we were able to find a balance and successfully craft this game.

—Since you were involved with the development of the game, was there anything you were concerned about?

Toriyama: Since we had to replace many things with a new portrayal, I was quite particular that the essence of FFVII still remained true throughout. I think that if you had played the original game too, you would know which parts were changed and which parts were left in. However, I wanted to make sure that the events of the Remake flowed in a natural way with both new and familiar elements that you can enjoy. I’m happy to know that the Remake is able to add an even more vivid experience to go along with your memories of FFVII.

—I’m sure that there are several younger development staff who never played the original FFVII, so were there any instances where there was a bit of a generation gap?

Toriyama: There are actually a lot of staff who have played the original FFVII and got the opportunity to work in this industry. There are also staff who are more versed in the original game than even the members of staff who worked on the original game, and many of those staff wanted to make an adaptation that kept faithful to the original. In terms of keeping things as traditional as possible, the staff who worked on the original game, myself included, had the notion of “making a new game that no one has ever seen before.” With that conscience in mind, we were able to decide the type of direction we wanted to go in the Remake.

Toriyama: In terms of music, FFVII is a rather cinematic series, but in the original game due to disc space and time restraints, we weren’t able to include a movie-worthy soundtrack. However, we were able to challenge ourselves with the Remake. We wanted to have specific songs that played throughout the entire game that would also go along with the scenes, so the Remake gave us a chance to be able to try this out. With this type of composing, we didn’t really have a specific detailed list, so we didn’t count exactly how many songs we created until we realized that the soundtrack itself would span to seven discs, making it a huge volume of songs (laughs).

—As a gamer, was there anything in particular from FF7R that surprised or impressed you?

Toriyama: After the game was released, I saw a gaming review website capture all the little details of various landscapes in the game, from the posters and billboards to the train time schedules, close inspections of the buildings, pretty much everything that showed the lifestyles of people living in Midgar. Although I’m glad that people were able to deeply observe the details we put in, I can’t help but see some flaws, so it kind of gives me pressure to make sure that the next installment will have even more perfected details (laughs).

—Compared to 23 years ago, from the addition of voices in conversations to a change of design, trends have changed. Was it difficult to achieve a balance of retaining the essence of the original game but still representing it for a new generation?

Toriyama: We wanted to have the game be fully voiced including the NPC within the city, so we were careful when putting in dialogue that would sound natural. We left in some funny lines spoken from the original game’s NPC too, but since there were way more NPCs in the Remake compared to the original, we made sure to find a good balance where those lines wouldn’t be buried among the other spoken dialogue.

Toriyama: For the Remake, the voice acting was added after we had finished creating the cutscenes, and I think that the character’s performance really shined through from the work that the actors and actresses have done that brought out each character’s charm. During recording, Barret had an unexpected continuity that we pushed further, and the results really brought out his character very well.

—In regards to seeing a brand new side of Cloud, the peak of it would probably be the dance sequence at the Honey Bee Inn. Was this scene planned from the beginning?

Toriyama: We strongly did not want to leave out Cloud’s crossdressing scene but instead wanted to create a concept that would make it stand out even more in the Remake. We decided to make Wall Market a huge entertainment district, and we were very enthusiastic in making the Honey Bee Inn even more of an entertainment hotspot in the Remake. I actually helped create the Honey Bee Inn for the original game, so it was easy for me to reimagine the place for the Remake. While still retaining some elements from the original, we were able to give it a huge makeover.

—The Shinra Mascot dog “Stamp” appears in various locations, even on a snack package blowing in the wind in towards the ending with Zack. Was the character of Stamp originally created in the beginning stages of development?

Toriyama: The dog Stamp is a very important symbol that was planned since the beginning. Stamp’s use was determined along with the game design. AVALANCHE also uses him as their symbol, so there is a good meaning to him that we included to have him stand out. However, the Stamp that appears in the scene with Zack is a different breed, so please pay attention to that.

—I was quite surprised that Chadley turned out to be what he was in the story, but who’s idea was it to create this character?

Toriyama: Chadley is a new character that was not in the original game, so it was the scenario team who decided on creating this character. There are a lot of contents regarding the game’s difficulty levels and clearing the battle reports, so we decided to have Cloud be able to encounter Chadley throughout the entire game. I haven’t finished clearing the HARD mode yet, but I hope that those who haven’t cleared everything yet can challenge themselves with this!

—The new character Roche left quite an impact, but he’s an eccentric one that only appears in Chapter 4 and nowhere else. What was the purpose of his character, and will he appear in the next installment?

Toriyama: We had initially drawn up a concept of having Roche appear at the last battle on the Midgar Highway, but we thought that he might ruin the serious mood of the ending sequence, so we scrapped that idea. We also thought to put him in as a boss battle in the Chapter 14 slums, but since you can’t really race around on a motorbike in the slums, we unfortunately could not make it work. Roche’s spontaneity is one of his character traits that stands out though, so there’s a high chance that he’ll appear in the next installment (laughs).

—In the Remake, the characters have a lot of banter when they’re walking around or fighting battles, and the dialogue is not always the same either. Did you oversee the types of conversations that were put in?

Toriyama: All scenarios were checked and supervised by me and Nojima-san. We actually had a lot more lines prepared in the script for dialogue spoken by characters in boss battles, but somewhere around the middle of production, we eventually cut out the frequency of giving out hints and instead left it to the players to think about what to do. This in turn caused us to cut a lot of dialogue out.

—Are there any specific episodes, scenes, or dialogue that you were interested in or wanted to include?

Toriyama: The AVALANCHE base at the bottom of Seventh Heaven in the original game was an interesting area that left an impression on me, but since Cloud is not very close with AVALANCHE in the Remake, we wanted to show that distance between them, which made us leave out that scene. Although I really wanted to have Barret punching that sandbag in the Remake, I had to restrain myself (laughs).

—Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

Toriyama: Even though the first installment of the “FFVII Remake” has ended, the story has only just begun. While listening to the voices of the fans, we also hope to make the next installments something that would exceed your expectations. I personally also played the original game again after finishing the Remake. While waiting for the next installment, I hope you can enjoy the differences in the Remake’s portrayal of Midgar and also have fun imagining what kinds of things lie ahead in the next game too!

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CO-DIRECTOR HAMAGUCHI NAOKI INTERVIEW

—Now that the game has been released, how are you feeling?

Hamaguchi: I felt very relieved after seeing the user feedback after the game was released. I fully joined the development team for FF7R in 2017 when the fans had been waiting for this game for quite some time already. So I made it my mission to ensure that fans do not wait longer than 3 years for the completion of the game. FF7 is a game that many people have come to love, so there was a real sense of responsibility to carry, but even so, the development team staff is composed of people who are extremely passionate about FF7, so we were able to enjoy making this game while progressing on its development.

—Since you were involved with the development of the game, was there anything you were concerned about?

Hamaguchi: What was constantly said to the team was that we must “respect the original game.” We were not creating a new game that is only inspired by the characters and world of FFVII, but we strove to create a game where the elements of the original are remade using the latest game design and graphics, making it feel “nostalgic yet new.” If we were to stray far away from the source material, then people might think “this is not the FFVII that I know,” so we tried to follow the original story but added details that we could not add 20 years ago using the latest technology. With that, we were able to focus on enriching the story to create an experience that is still “the FFVII that l know, but with a lot more new things waiting to be discovered.”

Hamaguchi: The Remake was made possible by the enthusiasm from the entire staff. During the production of this game, the task division between the development staff was even more than another Final Fantasy numbered game. For example, a person in charge of location would usually be a level designer that would spend 2-3 years on a single location’s design, execution, and then implementation, and we had specific staff designated to work on all the locations as well. For battle parts, we had a single person in charge of 2-3 bosses at a time, and a level designers also oversaw everything from design to implementation. With this scheme, we were able to have each game designer focus on only the parts that they are designated with, which allowed them to be enthusiastic and particular with the production of their areas. However, because of this, each game designer felt very strongly of their work that they poured their all into, so in order to not lose satisfaction, wemade it a priority to view the contents as a whole within the team. By doing this, we were able to combine everyone’s vision into the end product.

—Without having the battle system be solely either a Command RPG or Action style, it must have been challenging to fuse the two together. During development, there must have been some trial and error to get it right, but was there any part that was specifically concerning or challenging?

Hamaguchi: One of the most particular parts was how we were going to incorporate the ATB Battle System. We didn’t want to incorporate a completely new battle style that was different than the original, so we were inspired by the original FF7’s ATB battle system to create a new and improved one that also works in real time. Of course, I’m sure that the action elements we added gives off a very fresh impression, but the root of the system is from the ATB battle system, allowing us to incorporate a sense of nostalgia to the battle system. The part we worked extremely hard on was how to fuse together action and command style elements. Many of the development team staff including myself have a long history working with command RPGs, so we are very confident with that type of battle style in that field. However, when we tried adding action elements in, there was a sense of discord within the battle system we had.

The part we were stuck on was that implementing a command system will cause the the user to have too much information in regards to fighting strategy, and that would only cause issues if we were also going to add real time action options too. When we were doing trial and error to figure out how to draw the line between how many action and command elements we could add, Battle Director Endou Teruki was able to join our team. He is extremely versed with action battle systems and how to develop them, so as soon as he saw what we had created, he immediately pointed out that we were lacking features in regards to the action elements of the battle system. Since we were having trouble figuring out a balance between the action and command elements, we couldn’t really answer what we were lacking since we just simply added in action elements, so we were not able to create a very refreshing experience. Luckily, Endou was able to concentrate on the action parts and balanced out the battle system with fast paced command RPG strategy as well as action elements, which is what you see in the finished product.

—In terms of creating an action battle system, I’m sure there were concerns about the increasing difficulty of that fighting style. For those who are not fond of action battle systems, there’s also the option of “CLASSIC Mode,” but was there anything else you were particularly conscious about?

Hamaguchi: For those who only wanted to enjoy the game’s story, we implemented EASY Mode, for those who wanted to enjoy the command RPG style of fighting, we also created the CLASSIC mode, so there are different play styles you can choose from. Since the “CLASSIC mode” was something we tried for the first time, we were excited to hear the reactions of the players, and I think the reviews have been favorable. We heard comments from users who enjoyed the Normal mode’s difficulty level but in the CLASSIC mode style, so we will refer to their feedback in the future as well.

—Since the game’s release, I’m sure that most people have viewed the battle system in a very favorable light. What do you think about the reactions that you have seen thus far?

Hamaguchi: We feel that we have delivered the exact type of battle experience that users can accept. I think this is thanks to the way we were able to create a system that not only reimagines the ATB battle system in real time form, but we also pays homage to the Command RPG style, which leaves a sense of nostalgia while giving a fresh new experience to the battle style. I’m sure there are a lot of people who are interested in what kind of battle system we have in store for the next installment too. We would like the battle system to be even more customizable with more action and command strategies that users can curate into their own playing style, giving an even newer experience, so please look forward to that!

—It seems that the level cap at 50 has some limitations in regards to your status attributes and range, and since various weapons have their own strengths, it seems like you put thought into balancing out battles. In regular RPGs, characters grow and their weapons become stronger, but it feels like this was done in moderation. Was this balance something that the development team had planned from the beginning?

Hamaguchi: When we were stuck on how to create the battle system, we made changes to optimize the balance of the battle system. We wanted a balance that also incorporated the original FF7’s customizable options with materia, and Battle Director Endou also had the same thoughts. However, if we allowed players to get as many materia as they would like, then they could technically give the same set of materia to each character, which would defeat the purpose of giving each character their own unique abilities. Thus, we decided to put limits on the amount of attributes you can have. Moreso than putting a moderation on gaining strength, we wanted players to have fun with the strategies that they could incorporate by using different materia or weapons. If you were to redo a battle, you could try other ways of setting up your weapons and materia to create a stress free battle, and I thought that was an important function to have.

—Boss battles within the game have different stages where the attacks or field changes, such as the Sword Dance battle that splits between two parties during the fight. Was this concept of having battles be set up in different stages as the fight progressed something that was decided during the beginning of production?

Hamaguchi: That’s right. I told the team during the beginning that boss battles would be executed out in phases. Many of the bosses within each chapter contain some of the most exciting reveals, so we wanted players to be able to feel immersed within the story even through the boss battles. In order to do that, we constructed each boss battle to have several different phases where the battle strategy changes and also focuses on the story at the same time. We also paid attention to the party structure. In particular, we spent a lot of time and effort to solidify the party structure during the battle with Sephiroth. The battle with the Whisper Harbinger that leads to the climax fight with Sephiroth is one that changes automatically as does the structure of the party you are fighting with, so the protagonists need to work together in order to challenge their own fate.

However, we felt that if we were to do the same type of structure during Sephiroth’s battle, then it might become tedious to the player. For example, if we were to take away one of the protagonists out of the four, then the fans of that protagonist might feel let down. Because of that, we decided that the characters who join you during the Sephiroth battle will depend on how you fought during the Whisper Harbinger battle. However, in order to do this, we would have to create a ton of cutscenes depending on the order that the characters appear in, and even now I remember the look on the cutscene team member’s faces when I proposed the idea and the blank stares that I received (laughs). Because the Final Fantasy Series is one that is known for having a large amount of cutscenes, I am really grateful for the cutscene team member’s assistance in not just the Sephiroth battle scene, but for working so hard on all cutscenes within the series too.

—There are weapons, accessories, materia, and items that were added into the Remake that were not present in the original game, but was there any particular reason for doing this?

Hamaguchi: Right before the game went gold, I actually made an absurd request to the team to add the “Pedometer” materia. You get this materia at the start of Chapter 14, and since you’re there to help people out with odds and ends within the Sector 5 and Sector 6 slums, you would need to walk around the areas a lot. Since you had visited these areas within Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 already, there wouldn’t be many changes, so I thought to give players a reason for walking around these places again by adding in this materia. I actually originally called the materia the “Step” materia, but I noticed that Toriyama changed the name to the “Pedometer” materia instead (laughs). I was reminded of it again when I saw the strategy book refer to that name.

—Is there any specific monster enemy or battle (whether it be within the Colosseum or Battle Simulator) that piqued your interest?

Hamaguchi: The “Level 7 Top Secret Battle” has quite a shock factor. The person in charge of battle planning asked me, “Does it make sense for Bahamut to summon Ifrit?” Since they are fighting in a virtual reality, it wouldn’t be a problem, so I answered “Yeah, go for it!” without thinking too much about it. However, when I was doing a play check for the difficulty level of the battle, I remember being shocked (laughs). When that happens, you’d probably panic and think that you should defeat Ifrit first, but it’s actually more advantageous to focus on attacking Bahamut instead. This battle was the most difficult one for me and left quite an impression.

—I’m sure that there are several younger development staff who never played the original FFVII, so were there any instances where there was a bit of a generation gap?

Hamaguchi: Since the original game was so widely loved by fans everywhere, there were a lot of younger staff members who were scared of making changes. On the other hand, Producer Kitase wanted big changes (laughs). Nomura and I saw the Remake as an homage to the original game, so if we were to change anything, we made sure that it would be something planned with a specific reason that fans could accept.

—Did you have any ideas or wishes that you were entertaining by yourself that was then made a reality in this game?

Hamaguchi: It’s not something I was entertaining for a while, but having an automatic weapon growth system was something that I focused on before working on FF7R since I was on the development team for the “Mobius Final Fantasy” game, which left a strong impression on me. Since a smartphone game operates in a way that you return to it on a daily basis, lots of things are automated as much as possible to create a smooth experience. There’s also a card synthesis system within the game that allows for an automated way to synthesize your cards, so that was a point that I thought would be nice to have in FF7R where weapons could automatically level up as well. I’m always thinking about the consumer side when developing games, and being able to see customer reactions in real time, such as when I was developing smartphone games, gave me an environment to try out a lot of ideas I had. I think that was a great experience for me.

—As a gamer, was there anything in particular from FF7R that surprised or impressed you?

Hamaguchi: Although I myself was involved too, I’m still very impressed that we were able to successfully create a game from start to finish without making compromises to any of the large amount of data we had. This is all thanks to not only Nomura, Toriyama, and other directors such as me, but also to the game designers, graphics team, sound team, system staff, and more. All of us had various responsibilities as creators, and it’s because of the best efforts of everyone that we were able to make this game possible. I’m personally very excited to make the next game with the same team members again!

—FFVII Remake is highly praised as a game with amazing quality with the latest technology, but was there anything that was challenging or something that you did not personally oversee but was still impressed with the outcome?

Hamaguchi: Seeing the world of FFVII open up through its story is one of the highlights that makes the game so enjoyable, but the user experience and story immersion could be greatly impacted with too many loading screens and wait times. We therefore kept a technical eye on the loading system since the beginning. In order to do this, we aligned the data with each situation so that it could simultaneously load, which allowed us to not have the loading screen appear during the middle of the chapter. During the last cutscene of each chapter, the next chapter’s data would already be loading in the background, which allowed for the load screen between chapters to also be as short as possible. We also added tips to read on the load screen, but because the loading times are so short, it’s also difficult to read all of them. It made me cry out with joy!

—Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

Hamaguchi: The first installment of the “FFVII Remake Project” was centered around Midgar, and we strived to recreate a Midgar that you could not experience in the original story, showcasing the hustle and bustle of the lives of the people there as well as the environment. The next installment will then shift to the other parts of the world since the characters have escaped from Midgar in the story. We hope to create a game that allows you to experience the charm and allure of the world of FFVII from the various lives of the people as well as the environments that will be present. Production for the next installment is already under way, and our team is putting their all into the advancement of the game. Although there is still a wait, we hope that you can look forward to what we have in store!

#final fantasy 7 #ff7r #final fantasy 7 remake #ff7 #final fantasy vii remake #ffvii #final fantasy #cloud #aerith #tifa #barret #red xiii #reno #rude #tseng #rufus #my translations

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iaintyourbro · 4 years

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But isn't the one who forget about Zack the devs not us they were so bias toward Aerith all these years as someone who's a big fan of Zack I felt so disappointed and furious at them because Zack gave his life to Cloud and Aerith gave her life to save the planet but all I saw is his over the top guilt over Aerith heck even the op of AC had him bury her in the water where's Z ?? No where to be found it was only in the complete version , what IAM saying it not us who keep forgetting about Zack(1)

Not to mention all these years despite Tifa who ended up with him SE kept promoting A as the love interest while Tifa kept being negelating by SE so it not only Z but T too , that why I'm happy right now with their treatment to T after years of being so bias toward A and forgetting what Z done to C and T ,but I know I can't trust SE i know what they're going to do for next parts I do know one thing they are going to hype A to the last scene of her and leave T to the last as usual (2)

Hi anon.

I’ve never felt they were biased towards Aerith. Talking to Japanese fans, Tifa is by far more popular overall in Japan. Worldwide she’s had more cameo appearances. The only other FFVII character that has more than her is Cloud. When polls that are actually controlled (not bottable), Tifa is more popular.

Google trends shows that Cloti has always been more popular - since 2004, which is the furthest back it’ll go. I don’t fully trust it since I don’t think it takes every area into account, but it is interesting to see the stark difference.

There will always be fan service - and in the case of things like Airship Brigade (I think that’s what its called) you can have whatever couple you want. It’s for fun, but it’s not canon.

I think that’s where people can get mixed up. There’s fanon/fanservice and canon. Canon doesn’t show any type of romantic relationship between Cloud and Aerith. In fanon you can have this happen - but that’s because it’s fanon. I can also make Clack/Zakkura legit in fanon. It’s not canon.

There’s actually more evidence for Clack/Zakkura and AerTi than there is for CA, but that’s not for this post.

I think unfortunately some antis spread a lot of false information online and they really do make it seem like its their life’s work to do this. New fans can get confused and discouraged and slowly learn what the truth is. Yesterday I saw a tweet that somebody just finally found out that Maiden Who Traveled the Planet and Dismantled weren’t actually canon resources, but had been told by people online that they were.

Fans of C/A - especially Tifa haters - will make people think that Tifa is hated by SE and everyone else. It’s just not true. SE is going to go with where the money is in most cases. Nojima and the team want to make sure their story is clear now. OG, Advent Children, and Case of Tifa are usually very misunderstood. If you put ALL of the compilation together and actually look at it as it should be looked at, all of this makes sense.

In the case of Zack, he’s a very popular character. I think timing can cause a problem here, and I just had this argument last night.

Dirge of Cerberus came out in 2006.

Crisis Core - 2007

Advent Children Complete - 2009

Revised Cases in OtWtaS - 2009

People will argue since in DoC it’s not explicitly stated that Cloud and Tifa are lovers/romantically involved, that it must not have ever worked out. The devs purposely put Crisis Core out. They purposely redid parts of Advent Children and their novels because they realized people had SEVERELY misunderstood things.

Zack isn’t mentioned in DoC because at the time he was only mentioned in OG briefly and shown briefly during the Lifestream and then if you go and find the hidden/optional scene from the Shinra Mansion basement.

The reason Tifa is called a childhood friend in things like user guides is because the big reveal on what is actually going on with Cloud is the plot twist. Why would they freely advertise that? It’s a big reveal, it’s supposed to be a surprise. In the case of DoC’s guide, they get stuck on that and the “engraved in heart” which is actually “who he’ll never forget” in the English version - either way - why would he forget her? She was killed in front of him. He tried to kill her twice.

The other thing... people really forget how much guilt Tifa has. It’s just not heavily talked about and a LOT of people haven’t read Case of Tifa. I think it was one of the best things I did because it filled in some concerns I had over Advent Children.

So Zack isn’t forgotten - but they do keep his stuff sealed because it’s part of the ending of Remake Part 1. Zack was WRITTEN in so much for the Famitsu poll, they had to censor his name because of spoilers. He wasn’t even an option and people still got him int he top 10 - that’s how well liked he is.

A lot of people also will flat out deny Crisis Core. I saw this just as recently as yesterday as well. It’s hard to navigate at times. I think the only way I can keep myself sane is to ONLY refer and look at canon materials. To ONLY use non-optional scenes in arguments.

Even spin-off games like Kingdom Hearts end up showing Cloti. People said he was looking for Aerith, but he was actually looking for Sephiroth. People say Aerith was his light, but Nomura confirmed that Tifa was his light.

These two here are good to go over the KH and some other stuff.

The Love Triangle of FFVII - LS.net

Cloud and Tifa in Kingdom Hearts - by @danseru-kun

In conclusion, the devs love Tifa too much to be neglecting her. The internet is a den of monsters. It’s like SOLDIER. It’s messy, it’s brutal, and full of lies. You can think something is more popular just by reading a biased person’s blog or going to certain websites. They’re very good at swaying you. Look at official materials, what games have been released where Cloud and Tifa have cameos, and decide for yourself on it.

I think Mobius also has a whole One True Love thing where Cloud is trying to remember something and it’s heavily implied that it’s Tifa. The little fairy thing actually is the one trying to help him with this. @silver-wield may have some more info on this.

Hey, Silver, I think I picked a good summoning gif for you. :)

#cloti #ff7r #ff7 #tifa lockhart #zack fair #cloud strife #cloud x tifa #zerith #kingdom hearts #ff7 spoilers #kingdom heart spoilers

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eleamaya · 4 years

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Zerith and Cloti Lines & Quotes Parallels

FFVII Original Game, Advent Children (sequel), and Crisis Core (prequel) are written by Kazushige Nojima.... so it’s not surprised to see how he wrote both pairings in similar way as I found these parallels:

Parallel #1: KOIBITO ( 恋人 )

Zack and Aerith

The two characters deeply involved with Aerith were Zack, who would become her lover (koibito), and Tseng, her guardian. (CC: FFVII Complete Guide)

One day, Zack is suddenly landed in a church in the slum. His cheerfulness and dependability capture Aerith’s heart and they’re being in a (koibito) lovers-like relationship. Although they can only see each other periodically, their thoughts keep them close in spirit. (Aerith’s profile, CC: FFVII Ultimania, pg. 22)

Aerith gently embraced Zack, who came back sad. The atmosphere makes them feel like lovers (koibito). (Aerith’s profile, FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania)

Cloud and Tifa

“Is Tifa your girlfriend (koibito)?” (Aerith asking Cloud, FFVII Remake Chapter 8)

There are many dimensions to Tifa’s character. She’s like a mother, also a sweetheart (koibito), and a close ally in battle (Advent Children Reunion Files book, pg. 19~ Nomura’s interview)

Parallel #2: SWEET YOUNG LOVE, WHAT SHE LIKES ABOUT HIM

Aerith about 16 years old Zack:

“He’s strong, kinda funny, and there’s something special about him.” (Crisis Core Chapter 5 - First Date)

Tifa about 14 years old Cloud:

“You were so small then … and cute.” (Original Game scene 116 - Cloud Dark Past)

Parallel #3: THE GIRLS’ DESIRE TO BE WITH HIM, JUST THE TWO OF THEM

Aerith, before Zack went to Nibelheim

Thinking that he would at least be of help to Aerith now, Zack began to make the flower-selling wagon as he had promised to make before. The two struggle to get use to the unfamiliar task, but they relish the happiness of spending time together. When Zack is called for duty, Aerith writes down 23 tiny wishes on a piece of paper and gives it to him. The note was filled with her earnest desire to be with Zack.

(FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania, Crisis Core Story Playback)

Tifa, before Cloud went to Midgar

"It was just an idea, but from the moment it was made, it became an irreplaceable promise. And that night, when Tifa realized that the Cloud she admired was just an ordinary boy, she fell in love with him. The kind of "love" that made her want to be with him, just the two of them. "

(Traces of Two Pasts, a novella written by Kazushige Nojima)

Parallel #4: SHE DRESSES UP FOR THE PROMISE THEY MADE

Zack and Aerith

For when they meet again on their next date, Zack’s specific suggestion was Aerith wearing pink. Aerith–who continued to wait for Zack’s return–starts to wear pink after making this promise (CC: FFVII Complete Guide--Keyword Collection)

Cloud and Tifa

Believing in Cloud’s promise, Tifa’s waiting to see Cloud become a SOLDIER like Sephiroth. Tifa dresses herself in a pretty and sexy look. Does she do that to spirit up herself in preparing for a touching reunion? (Tifa Lockhart Character Profile from CC: FFVII Ultimania)

Parallel #5: SHE ASKED IF HE KNEW A CERTAIN SOLDIER

Zerith: Aerith asked Cloud about Zack in SOLDIER in the Playground (FF7 Remake)

“Did you have any SOLDIER friends? Any war buddies? So Cloud, you were SOLDIER 1st Class, right? Weird. Just that you were in the same rank with the first guy I ever loved.”

Cloti: Tifa asked Zack about Cloud in SOLDIER via mails (Crisis Core)

“Are there any blond guys in SOLDIER? Well, it's just a dream... Any girl would love to have a blond SOLDIER guy protect her when she's in a pinch. I almost forgot. Please don't tell anyone in SOLDIER that I asked about the blond guy. Okay?”

Parallel #6: THEY THINK OF EACH OTHER UNDER THE SKY

Zack and Aerith -- the cloudy & azure sky

Zack think of Aerith: “I wish I could show this sky to…” (Crisis Core DMW Cloud Scene #4: Cloudy Sky)

Aerith think of Zack: “He was like a cloud drifting through the skies. As we peered skyward through the rafters of a heavenless Midgar, we made a promise. And that was the last time we spoke.” (Crisis Core 1st Official Trailer)

Cloud and Tifa -- the starry & night sky

Cloud think of Tifa: “I was just thinking about the past.” (Crisis Core DMW Cloud Scene #3: Starry Night At The Well)

Tifa think of Cloud: “Like the sky that night, the heavens were filled with stars. Did you imagine the sky? The stars were gorgeous. It was just Cloud and I. We talked at the well.” (Original Game scene 116 - Cloud’s Dark Past)

Parallel #7: PROMISE AT THE NIBELHEIM WELL/WATER TOWER

Zack and Aerith -- CC Chapter 013: I Promise

Aerith: Hello… (calling by phone) Zack: Aerith! Aerith: Finally, got through to you! Zack: Ah, sorry about this but I’m in the middle of something right now. I’ll give you a call a little later . Aerith: No. it’s okay. You don’t have to. Zack: I understand. I’ll come visit. Aerith: I’ll be waiting. Zack: I’Il see you. It’s a promise.

Cloud and Tifa -- OG scene 6: A Childhood Promise

Tifa: You said you wanna tell me something. Cloud: This summer… I wanna leave this town to Midgar. I wanna join SOLDIER… like Sephiroth. Tifa: Is it tough being SOLDIER, isn’t it? Cloud: Yeah, I probably could not go back to this town for a while. Tifa: Hey, why don’t we make a promise? Mmm… if you really get famous and I’m ever in a bind, you’ll come save me, alright? Whenever I’m in a trouble, my hero will come rescue me. Cloud: Alright, I promise.

Parallel #8: SHE WON’T BE AFRAID WITH HIM, HE PROMISED

Zack and Aerith -- CC Chapter 8: 23 Little Luxuries

Aerith: “When you come back from your assignment, let’s go sell flowers under the sky together. I won’t be afraid if you’re with me.”

Zack: “Yeah, I’ll go with you. That’s a promise.”

Cloud and Tifa -- OG Scene 136: Understanding

Tifa: “But, it’s alright even if no one comes back. As long as I’m with you… As long as you’re by my side… I won’t give up even if I’m scared.”

Cloud: “Afterall, I promised. That if anything were to ever happen to you, I would come to help.”

Parallel #9: MUTUAL AFFECTIONS/RECIPROCAL FEELINGS

Zack and Aerith

Zack and Aerith meet by chance in a church in the Slums. They become intimate with each other. (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Compilation Timeline)

From the boy’s profile

Having fallen into the sector 5 slum church during a mission, Zack has a fateful meeting with Aerith, a young girl who was tending to flowers in the church. They share a “puratonikku koi” / chaste romantic love, satisfied just to be together. Those joyous days seemed like they would last forever… (Zack’s Profile, CC: FFVII Ultimania, pg. 13)

From the girl’s profile

CC shows her meeting and relationship with Zack, and the budding love between them. However, fate would tear the couple apart. (Aerith’s Dengeki Profile)

At that chosen day, she accidentally met Zack, SOLDIER 1st Class, and they were attracted to each other. (Aerith’s Profile, FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania)

The destined encounter with Zack makes them becomes the irreplaceable existence to each other. (Aerith’s profile, CC: FFVII Ultimania)

His cheerfulness and dependability capture Aerith’s heart and they’re being in a lovers-like relationship. (Aerith’s profile, CC: FFVII Ultimania)

Cloud and Tifa

When their companions disperse to the places where people important to them await, Cloud and Tifa, who remain, reveal their feelings for each other together. (FFVII Ultimania Omega, pg. 198; story summary)

When Cloud and Tifa remain behind alone, in their final hours, together they disclose their feelings for each other. (FF 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario guide, FFVII Story Summary, pg. 232)

From the boy’s profile

Declares that the team should dissolve in the final hours before the final battle, and communicates his feelings together with Tifa, who remains behind at the airship with him. (Cloud’s Profile, FFVII Ultimania Omega, pg. 15)

From the girl’s profile

She ventured into Lifestream together with Cloud. Amidst the course of him trying to ascertain his memories, they became aware of the thoughts/feelings which each other was holding. (Tifa’s Profile, FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania. pg. 42-47)

In FF7, Tifa is the only one who knows Cloud’s childhood, and furthermore, she holds the key to people involved in the story of Nibelheim’s burning down, which is also depicted in CC. She and Cloud came to realize their feelings for each other in the end of the story, and live together in AC and DC.(CC:FFVII Ultimania, Tifa Lockhart Profile)

For many years, Cloud and Tifa have been holding favor for one another. At last facing the impending final battle with Sephiroth, they confirm together their feelings of desire toward partnership. (Tifa’s Profile, FF 25th Memorial Ultimania)

Parallel #10: THEY GO BACK TO WHERE THEY BELONG

Zack and Aerith -- Afterlife

Zack Profile in FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania: In order to help Cloud recover, he assured him from the Lifestream together with Aerith.

Aerith Profile in ACC Dengeki: She joined the Lifestream, but even then she carries on watching over the planet and Cloud. At all times, her first love Zack is always by her side.

Both are mentioned: ...She starts to leave, together with the friend who had given his life to Cloud. Cloud no longer has to suffer in loneliness. And so they too go back to where they belong. Back to the current of life flowing around the planet. (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania--Revised Edition, ACC Playback)

Cloud and Tifa -- Living World

Cloud Profile in FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania: With the help of his friends, he defeated Bahamut SHIN, which Kadaj’s gang had summoned. He defeated Sephiroth after his Advent, and returned to Tifa and the children.

Tifa Profile in ACC Dengeki: At the end of a long struggle, she gently welcomes back Cloud on his return home after settling things with himself.

Both are mentioned: ��Inside, I felt one thing was for sure: Cloud and Tifa would be together. Everybody would be living back home where they belonged.” (Kazushige Nojima-the scriptwriter, Advent Children Reunion Files book)

Parallel #11: DESCRIBED AS A SINGULAR ITEM / A PAIR

Zack and Aerith described in ACC

For Cloud, they were people whom he can never forget. The two irreplaceable people; Zack, “who was sent to death because protecting me” and Aerith, “who met a tragic fate as I couldn’t protect her” became “the unforgivable sins” in his heart.

(Advent Children Complete Post Card Book)

Cloud and Tifa described in CC

Cloud and Tifa are childhood friends, both born in Nibelheim. When Cloud leaves the village, he calls Tifa out to the water tower and promises that he will become a SOLDIER. At the same time, he is also made by Tifa to promise that he will come to rescue her if she is ever in trouble.

Following this, the pair experience many hardships, such as the Nibelheim incident which also appears in CC, and the Jenova War in FFVII, and through these the distance between them shortens. And in AC they live together, with Barret’s daughter Marlene, and a boy named Denzel. Though there was also a period later where Cloud lived away from them after having contracted Geostigma, they finally reach a commune with each over and return to living together once again. In DC, they rush together to Vincent’s aid, in his battle against Deep Ground SOLDIER.

(CC:FFVII Complete Guide Book)

Parallel #12: NOBUO UEMATSU COMPOSE A MUSIC SCORE BASED ON THEM IN THE SCRIPT

Zack and Aerith - “Aerith’s Theme”

I really like “One Winged Angel”. I guess, I also like “Aerith Theme.” I’m happy that it’s always well received when it’s played at concerts. Honestly, when I made it, I didn’t think it would be popular. In the scenario, there was the line “Aerith waited. Every single day, she waited and waited.” So I made the song to match that scene which means, it wasn’t made for the scene in Forgotten City. The scene where Aerith waits for Zack at the station was first. It’s a song about “a poor girl who waits for someone who doesn’t come.”

(Nobuo Uematsu’s interview from Game Symphony Japan FF7 2014 concert pamphlet)

Cloud and Tifa - “Cloud’s Smile”

One of the staff’s favorite scenes was where Cloud smiles in embarrassing way towards Tifa. Nomura liked it as there was almost no dialogue and the expression of Cloud’s face communicated his expression to the viewers. Composer Nobuo Uematsu commented, “It sounds cool!”, considering the fact that gamers who have finished FFVII (OG) would find it hard to imagine how Cloud smiles. Upon reading that scene in the script, Uematsu was inspired to write the score

(FFVII Advent Children Distance: The Making of Advent Children)

#zerith #cloti #Aerith Gainsborough #cloud strife #zack fair #Tifa Lockheart #FF7 #been awhile since I posted something like this #my double pairing

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khtrinityftw · 3 years

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Honest KH2 Critique

I wanna talk about Kingdom Hearts II since we're quickly approaching it's 15th anniversary. Ever since it was released, it's become a game that people irritatingly refuse to be moderate over, or at least when it comes to the vocal fans online. People who love it don't love it so much as worship it, while people who hate it don't hate it so much as despise it with every fiber of their being. I may technically fall into the "love" category (I share the majority fan and critic view that KH2, especially it's Final Mix edition, is the best game in the series), but I'm also willing to look at both its good and its bad, and do so in moderation rather than hyperbolically.

And I know, without a doubt - Kingdom Hearts II...has the absolute worst-written story out of the KH Trinity!

OK, that was said hyperbolically, but I did so as a joke!

It's so weird that the original Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories have narratives that are deeply and thoughtfully structured with such care and consistency, and then the trilogy is rounded out by such a messily-written rollercoaster of quality!

.....Well, all right, maybe not that weird.

When interviewed shortly after KH2's first public reveal at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show, this is how Tetsuya Nomura described the process for writing the game's story: "I'm writing the plot, the main story of Sora and co. Other people are in charge of the plots for the events that will happen in each Disney world. Combining that with Nojima, we're completing one scenario."

The "other people" in question are the Event team: Masaru Oka, Ryo Tsurumaki, Michio Matsuura, Atsuko Ishikura, Yukari Ishida, and Kumiko Takahashi. Daisuke Watanabe and Harunori Sakemi also assisted Nojima with scenario writing whenever the need arose.

The problem that this process caused isn't apparent at first glance, but it's actually right there in that interview excerpt: "I'm writing the plot". In KH and CoM, Nomura only wrote the initial plot outlines, which were very simple and ripe for being fleshed out by the actual scenario writer. There's a big difference between that and writing a full-fledged plot the way he did here.

Nomura wrote the story for what transpires in the KH-original worlds: Twilight Town, Hollow Bastion, the World That Never Was and Destiny Islands. It goes like this:

As far as plots go, I actually really like this one. It's a strong plot.

It's also convoluted as Hell.

I made a post saying the three one-word convoluted elements of KH2's plot are "Nobodies", "Data", and "Ansem". All three of those are literally the cornerstones of this plot that Nomura cooked up: they play a huge role through the beginning, middle and end! Because Nomura had more power with making this game, none of the more...out-there stuff that these concepts created could be curbed or removed. Which means that the scenario writer had better be in tune with Nomura when it comes to presenting them in a coherent way.

For the most part, Kazushige Nojima was....not.

Here is a tell-tale sign that Nomura and Nojima were not in sync. When asked if he planned from the start to make Kingdom Hearts be the heart-shaped moon seen on the cover of the original game, Nomura replied "No, I didn't. I asked Nojima-san to write the scenario and in his scenario it was written that the Kingdom Hearts Xemnas created is 'like a moon that floats in the World that Never Was'. When I read that, I thought ‘’Oh, this can be connected!’’"

Nomura just admitted that Nojima essentially had to make up how to convey Xemnas harnessing and trying to complete Kingdom Hearts, because Nomura's plot did nothing to convey it. It was a "wait, how the fuck is he doing that!?" detail. And you really get the sense all throughout the scenario that Nojima is struggling with trying to convey Nomura's stuff, and he has said as much in interviews: Nomura's plot and concepts confused him.

It also doesn't help that Nojima was the least major scenario writer on the original KH, mainly limited to the co-creation of Ansem with Nomura and writing the entire End of the World section. This is probably why Xemnas and Ansem the Wise are clearly the KH-original characters with the most confidence and complexity behind their writing in KH2's scenario. Nojima writes Sora, Kairi, their Nobodies Roxas and Namine, and Riku far more simplistically and trope-y, and the other Organization members and trio of Hayner, Pence and Olette are side characters so naturally they don't get much depth.

Then there's Masaru Oka and his Event Team. First off, while Masaru Oka is definitely on Nomura's wavelength and understands his vision to a fault, as Event Director he is superbly mediocre at presenting that vision, or Nojima's for that matter. He just isn't cinematically inclined the way Jun Akiyama was in the original KH, and that leads to the event scenes usually being the barest minimum of adequate at best, and laughably awkward at worst.

Secondly, Oka and his team were responsible for creating the plots in the Disney worlds (hence Oka's credit alongside Nomura under "Base Story"). But not only were they frequently lazy and just directly rehashed the movie's story but with Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Heartless shoved in, but half of the time they didn't even bother connecting the world plots to Nomura's main plot in any meaningful way beyond thematically ala CoM, and neither Nomura nor Nojima seemed keen on correcting this even when they really should have.

Here is a chart displaying the game's flow, stage by stage as set by world battle level. Stages where the main plot is progressed in some way are bolded, and stages of the main plot as created by Nomura have red borders around them:

Aside from Space Paranoids which was part of Nomura's plot from the get-go, the only time where correlation with the main plot occurs without any side factor to note is Beast's Castle, where both visits feature the machinations of Organization member Xaldin and culminates in the boss battle against him that leads to his demise.

Olympus Coliseum correlates to the main plot in the first visit but not the second, although the second visit is now made plot-relevant due to tying up loose ends from the first. Port Royal correlates to the main plot in the second visit but not the first, although the first visit is now made plot-relevant due to setting the stage for the second (it also has Larxene's Absent Silhouette in FM). There is technically a main plot correlation in the second visits to the Land of Dragons and Agrabah (the latter of which has Vexen's Absent Silhouette in FM), but Nojima botched the writing of them to the point where there may as well not have been, especially in the case of Agrabah’s which is "oh btw, an Organization XIII member came by off-screen".

And then there's the case of Disney Castle / Timeless River, which only acquires relevance to the main plot because it was decided that Maleficent should be resurrected and be Pete's boss in the present time. And unlike her appearance in Halloween Town, her role in this stage correlates directly to her role in the main story, revealing her resurrection to the heroes and establishing that she seeks a new evil stronghold from which to advance her return to power. Pete's backstory and connection to King Mickey shown here also receives a direct reference toward the climax of the World That Never Was.

While it could be argued that there's additional value in the first visits to Port Royal, Agrabah, Halloween Town and Pride Land due to the presence of Pete (Maleficent when it comes to Halloween Town), I would have to disagree because nothing they actually do in these stages end up mattering to the main story whatsoever - especially in Pride Land, where Pete just shows up in lion form to say “Ooga Booga Booga!”. Their presence alone just ain't enough.

The consequence here is that for the continuous stretch of Port Royal in the first go-round, Olympus Coliseum in the second, and Agrabah, Halloween Town and Pride Land in both go-rounds, it feels like nothing is advancing. And as bad as that sounds on paper, it's even worse when applied to gameplay because it means this lasts for several hours straight! The only main plot event that happens in either cycles is Kairi going to Twilight Town, which happens in a sudden cutscene between Agrabah and Halloween Town and is thus totally out of the player's control!

To sum things up, Nomura wrote a main plot that was good but too overwrought with confusing and complicated details. Nojima is a highly talented writer, but he didn't fully get Nomura's vision. Oka gets Nomura's vision, but he isn't a highly talented Event Director (and as seen in later games, he has even less talent as a writer) and often portrayed scenes that Nomura or Nojima came up with flatly. And none of these men were in sync when it came to how the Disney world plots and the main plot would connect, often simply not caring or else just not trying hard enough.

That is why KH2 has the weakest writing in the KH Trinity: the primary creative voices that shaped the story were completely out of sync with one another on a regular basis. You could say that their hearts just didn't connect on this project. And as a result, we have blatant inconsistences, bad edit jobs, pacing problems, mood whiplashes, missed opportunities, and dumbass moments galore.

However, on the occasions where things between them did manage to sync up, we were given some of the highest points in not only the KH Trinity but the entire KH series, and the input that was given from Daisuke Watanabe, Harunori Sakemi, and others like production assistant (and major Disney fanatic) Eri Morimoto surely helped the messy story become not quite as big a mess as it could have been otherwise. And that story still stayed true to the series' roots as a whimsical Disney/FF crossover project driven by relatable characters and emotional resonance, as opposed to a vanity project for Nomura that is driven by perplexing lore, plot twists and mystery boxes.

And that's why I and so many others love KH2, warts and all, and would gladly take dozens more narrative messes just like it over the different, far less enjoyable kinds of narrative messes that we've been getting afterward.

#Kingdom Hearts II #Anti-Nomura #Anti-Series Beyond

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eruriholic · 4 years

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Hello! I just want share my feelings about the ending of Remake. I'm really bothered by it, tbh. Should I even trust Nomura on directing this considering his obsession with timelines? I'm now concerned with my favorite scenes in the OG like the Under the Highwind and Cloud and Tifa in the Lifestream. 😥

Hey there Nonnie! I didn’t expect my response to be so long, so I’ve placed it under the cut. I hope this helps!

I’m gonna be honest with you, after my first watch of the ending, all I felt was pure amazement and nostalgia for the game. A little confusion, yes, but it was mostly overshadowed by the positive emotions that filled me, most especially in how satisfying it was to watch Tifa in the entire game. It was afterwards when I started to watch people’s analysis videos and saw everyone’s mixed reactions that I also grew anxious and scared of what the ending meant for the game.

It was just as Aerith said in the ending of Part 1 - how she misses the steel sky. The dull metal of the plates above the slums was always a constant, and in the constant we find comforting familiarity. There is nothing scary when you know just what you are staring at. But now the team is literally out in the open, walking under a boundless blue sky – the endless possibilities, the unknown, and it is without a doubt, frightening. Not just for the characters, but for us fans who now, after decades of knowing the story, are faced with blank pages and the ghosts of what already came to be. I also started to think of so many what ifs, so many ways to make this already complicated story even more complicated and angsty. I also felt troubled and scared, and it ruined how I had enjoyed the Remake. Also, adding timelines just somehow takes away what’s special about the game – if it didn’t workout here, it doesn’t matter because so and so could’ve happened in this timeline – and I just really am not a fan of that (no matter how much I love the best puppy boy Zack Fair).

I thought real hard about this – no way will I let the ending affect the sky-high I was on (and still am) while watching the playthroughs and rewatching all my favorite scenes. And then I came to this answer: despite all the worries stated above, there is something that I think we can all put our hopes on - the treatment and writing of Tifa and Cloud’s relationship.

I remember in an interview, the writer, Nojima, said there were so many things he wrote for the OG that didn’t make the final product. Nojima is widely known to love Tifa’s character, as does the then character designer and now director of the remake, Nomura. We were blessed with so many Cloti scenes that weren’t in OG, from the subtle to blatant, in words of support and comfort and even more in action. NPCs were even used here and there to remind the player of how Tifa is special or important to Cloud. Their relationship is treated with so much care, referenced even when Tifa is not around in a chapter. I do believe this slowburn is the story Nojima wanted to write, maybe had already written but was watered down for technical or practical reasons in the OG.

And when Tifa said in “Alone At Last” that it’s funny how they went their separate ways and they think they wouldn’t see each other again, but here of all places they meet again?? That, to me, was Nojima writing that Tifa and Cloud would always find their way back to each other, because their fates are inextricably linked to each other. This is even fortified when Cloud decides to stay even when his job is done, all because of Tifa.

I also strongly believe that no matter what changes the ending of Remake will be opening to, Tifa will always be the key to bringing back the real Cloud and repairing his fractured mind. She is the only one among them who grew up with him and can prove he is Cloud of Nibelheim, she is first and foremost the start of his journey when he decided to be strong enough to protect her. Cloud finds himself through her, Tifa successfully reconstructs her own memories through him, and they grow stronger together and because of each other. (Pls excuse me I’m crying at this point) Also, unearthing Cloud’s memories is the key to revealing the Nibelheim Incident, which is also Tifa’s origin story and the birth of the villain Sephiroth. This is a very important turning point and a core story element that it will be very odd to erase it. Also it has been set up that there is a metaphysical Cloud who isn’t the one we’re following in the story – the real Cloud who appears in his subconscious to support him when he falls down from Mako Reactor 5, at the start of Chapter 8.

(I also have an idea in mind about how the Lifestream scene will go if it will be altered/enhanced in the next instalment??? If in Part 2 Aerith lives, she will be the one to help open the way to the Lifestream, and as the number one supporter of Cloti she tells her something like “This is all I can do. The rest is up to you. You’re the only one who can do this.”)

Also, that iconic scene in which Tifa cries, and Cloud cannot find the words to comfort her, but embraces her instead and assures her that crying isn’t pointless? That, I think, screams “Words aren’t the only way to tell someone how you feel”. That was Highwind before the Highwind. If they already outdid themselves in the Midgar Arc where in the OG there weren’t a lot of key Cloti scenes, I think they just might take it up a notch in Part 2.

The Remake really was such a wonderful thing, and despite how the ending made me feel, I can’t help but be hopeful in the writing that has always, time and again, brought Tifa and Cloud together. Also, as Nojima said, when he wrote AC as the follow-up to the OG, he said that he knew “Tifa and Cloud would be together” in the end. Coming from the writer himself, I think the story is in the best hands.

About Nomura, I decided I will have faith in his love for Tifa to do right by her character. The only thing I wish for is for her to be treated the same way as Cloud when they encounter Sephiroth. She literally had the same journey as he did, and her life was drastically changed by the Nibelheim incident.

So there you have it, those are my thoughts about the ending, which I hope can extend some positivity your way. Sorry if this was too long!

#cloti #anon #asks #thank you for asking me this!#this helped me get my thoughts in order #tifa lockhart #cloud strife #ffviir #holic.txt #Anonymous

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astoryofalove · 5 years

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Okay overall I love that teaser trailer (Aerith is so damn gorgeous!), but I still don't trust Nomura. Just look at the trash that is KH3 lmao. Everything seemed rushed and it was soo lacking. I'm scared for the FF7R. Also, Clerith's meeting was changed. How much more are they going to change? Square Enix seem to favor Tifa over Aerith for Cloud as well, just look at that stupid admin over the DFFOO accounts. I'm a little scared for Clerith.

Hm, I feel nothing but confidence after the newest trailer, and I’ve seen more confidence from majority of cleriths, too. BUT I understand your concerns, clerith means a lot to you (and all of us) and creators can suddenly do a 180 (it’s happened in lots of fandoms) and it leaves us all heartbroken. So I get that you’re cautious.

However, I don’t think you have to worry (at least not yet). For one, KH3 might have had its issues (all games do), but FFVII is a two-decades-old game. With FF7R; Kitase, Nojima, Nomura, (and Hamaguchi) are not building from the ground up like they were with KH3, they’re renovating. That’s a big difference.

I mean, just look at the latest trailer since Hamaguchi joined the team as co-director. The graphics are incredible, the character designs have exceeded expectations (at least in my opinion), the battle system looks amazing and, unlike the 2015 “trailers”, we actually saw legit gameplay, not a pre-recorded CGI cutscene posing as in-game content. I said for a few years now that the next trailer would determine whether or not I anticipate this remake, and as a clerith fan and a FFVII fan that was extremely disappointed with the first trailers, I am very excited now. Of course, that could all change, but I feel like it’s unlikely.

While it appears they removed the option to have the player decide if Cloud buys the flower or not, that option isn’t even bad for Clerith anyway. Cloud buying the flower from Aerith doesn’t change her affection points in the game. It only possibly affects Barret’s and Tifa’s. For all we know, they might have just altered it and made it so after Aerith says “it’s for you” the option to accept or decline could come up. We just don’t know yet.

Even if they removed a lot of options, I still feel confident for Clerith because the creators (not random Ultimanias) have been supporting Clerith: Kitase referring to the Clerith date as if it’s the canon outcome, Nobuo supporting the Clerith date at his concerts, Nojima saying Cloud and Aerith were lovers during FFVII, Nojima and Square Enix making an entire event for Cloud/Aerith during the FF30th celebration. Heck, even in Record Keeper it appears the devs are in favor of Clerith. So while the options were fun, as clerith fans we shouldn't worry just yet.

That said, I’m more upset by the fact that they changed it from; Aerith being shoved to the floor, stands up, Cloud walks past, then Aerith says “excuse me”, because she’s scared from the explosion. In the newest trailer, it appears that nobody is even reacting to the fact that a giant explosion just happened. Which is odd, because in the original game everyone is running around scared. Dismantled and the other Ultimanias discuss this same aspect of the scene. So it’s weird to see THAT much changed.

I really don’t see them removing any of the options though. I’ve seen a lot of CT fans say they hope Square Enix removes the romance options, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen. They’re not dumb, they want the cash/support from both shipping sides. Regardless, there will be a canon outcome and that will be clerith just like it was in the original game.

As for who Square Enix favors... Are you aware of all that’s happened for Clerith since 2015? Please read this timeline I made to see all of the pro-clerith stuff that’s happened over the years. I’m sure once you do, you’ll feel as confident as I, and many others, do. As I already said, Kitase, Nojima, and even Hamaguchi have all showed favoritism for Clerith/Aerith. The DFFOO account running a poll and asking people who they ship more doesn’t mean the DFFOO twitter staffer likes the outcome any more than we did--it also doesn’t mean Square Enix/the devs put them up to it.

That said, even IF the devs were the ones behind the valentines day poll, look at the response Square Enix gave us... CT won a poll and their first trailer after four years is Clerith. If anything, that’s their way of saying they’re intending on doing Clerith no matter what T/ifa fans want.

#asks: ltd #asks: ff7r #asks: all #Anonymous

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nautilusopus · 7 years

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I’m feeling angry today so here are all the entries of the Compilation listed from least terrible to “Nojima and Nomura are incompetent hacks and should be fired”.

8. The Case of Denzel OVA is the most bearable entry in the Compilation, because it does what a sequel is supposed to do: expand upon the lore of the established setting while showing us more about the characters in it. It's a shame, because I think this also might be the least acknowledged entry in it, apart from maybe Before Crisis, perhaps partially because it has no official English dub. In this case, we get to see Denzel finally fleshed out beyond "the littlest geostigma patient that Cloud needs to win the big game for!" He joins up with a group of salvagers, and we see everyone trying to piece the world back together following the complete collapse of the government, the economy, their primary energy source, and the deaths of millions, where they're immediately set upon by disease and societal tensions between what used to be the "upper class" and the slum dwellers that have always had it this way, more or less.

What the fuck, this is what Advent Children should have been entirely. Except with Cloud and his friends, and not Denzel, because screw Denzel, I wanna see what Avalanche has been up to. (We never get to see what Avalanche has been up to, and we never will.)

That being said, even Case of Denzel didn't manage to not fuck up royally, and it has a giant huge plothole in the form of forgetting to account for an entire goddamn year because it forgot Advent Children was set two years after the OG and not one. Whoops.

7. Advent Children Complete, which I'm treating as a separate entry from Advent Children -- Advent Children is a fucking mess with a nonsensical plot and wonky character motivations that, word of god, were literally just there because they figured it's how the fans wanted to be pandered to the best and not because they thought the motivations would be good or interesting (nothing like a content creator that openly states he thinks his target audience are morons!). It's slightly lower on the list than Advent Children vanilla because A) it looks slightly less ugly due to the Bluray release, B) Denzel's and Marlene's child actors got too old and they had to find younger ones for the redub, and these newer actors are actually better and significantly less obnoxious, and C) it has My Chemical Romance doing the theme song.

These are all very shallow reasons, admittedly. You'd think it'd be lower because the added scenes help fill in some plot holes, but they were badly added scenes that meshed very poorly with the story at large, and because of that they actually created about as many new plot holes as they filled in. Shite movie.

6. Advent Children vanilla. This is a good place to discuss why they're both on the bottom of the list, since they're pretty much the same movie. Shitty plot, characters are a sad shadow of what they used to be, and they did some weird thing with Cloud where he unlearns everything from the original game for the sake of cheap conflict and the fans try and defend it like it's actually deep and coherent. Not to mention some more bad decisions: Renu and Rude are good guys now and friends with Cloud and Tifa despite murdering their friends along with everyone else in Sector 7, Marlene is no longer Barret's daughter because ewwww, black people, and Tseng and Rufus are retconned back to life for literally no damn reason at all (they contribute nothing to the movie. Nothing. They even waste the dramatic reveal with the sheet by having him say "yeah it's me Rufus but I'm gonna wear this sheet for no reason and rip it off dramatically revealing ME, RUFUS SHINRA"). As far as I'm concerned they both just died again right after this movie.

Basically, Advent Children was bad and stupid, but it was pointless as well, which in this case works to its advantage: we relearn the exact same lessons but in a shittier, more juvenile way, wind up at the exact same point we started at by the movie's conclusion, and get confirmation that there were, in fact, zero fucking stakes. At least it didn't take a scalpel to the franchise lore at large, like everything else on this list.

5. The Last Order OVA is basically Square Enix frantically trying to save face after they've realised that, "Oh shit, our complete inability to proofread the first drafts of the scrips we've been running with have resulted in every single bit of VII lore introduced in these things wildly contradicting one another!" Basically, Last Order is a very pretty fight scene with Zack in it animated by Madhouse that occasionally tries to have a plot. This is the entry that began the handwave of "oh, all the entries in the Compilation are different because they're all told from a difrerent point of view! It's up to you do decide what really happened!" Lazy, bad, the beginning of the end. It looked nice, but I can't even enjoy the fight scene in the reactor properly because Zack doesn't immediately get bodied like he should've, which wouldn't have been very much fun to watch but at least would've made more sense; as well as the weird bit where they tried to imply Cloud was always infected with Jenova and mako-enhanced from birth? Somehow?

Also, the "Last Order" in question seems to be Zack telling Cloud to run. Cloud, who is in a vegetative state, and even if he weren't, can't even walk. Sure, he'll get right on that.

4. Case of Novels. These things suck and are terrible and look like they were written by a third grader. That's not just a "lol these are terrible" jab, either. I mean they literally read like they were written by a child with a very basic grasp of how to put sentences together. All of them are structured like so:

Tifa was very sad, because Cloud wasn't talking to her. Tifa thought that maybe Cloud felt sad because his friends were dead. Then Tifa thought about her adventures with her friends from Avalanche, the friends that she was best friends with two years ago. Cloud and Tifa had lots of adventures with them, but they were sad by the end of it because Aeris died, and then Tifa thought that Cloud was probably thinking about that too. Tifa felt bad about that.

They are bad to look at, just objectively, regardless of the content in them. Case of Barret's is by far the worst in that regard, to the point where I'm not entirely certain I didn't read a bootleg fake version of it, because there is no way Square Enix would charge actual money for a product that was meant to be released to the masses and presented as canon to Final Fantasy VII. Except that they did. (I can also believe it because it further works towards the goal of erasing Barret from the story entirely, more on this later.)

As far as the actual story content, I'd probably have to say Case of Lifestream White/Black are the worst, due to some weird nonsense where Aeris just hangs out in the Lifestream and watches people like it's a spectral break room, and Sephiroth grumbles and pines over Cloud like a jilted ex-boyfriend because Nojima forgot there was anything else to his character. These, like Advent Children, are pointless, but they’re pointless to the extent that it’s absurd they even exist -- there's apparently an entire third Shinra bastard running around out there, and he has zero bearing on anything ever, and never will again. What Shinra bastard? Who? Kadaj murdered a whole town offscreen or something, but I guess it wasn’t relevant, don’t know why we brought it up.

3. Before Crisis. Japan-exclusive mobile game where Square stops even bothering trying to hide their contempt for anyone not in the "marketable niche" (i.e: all the white male characters ages 16-27) and begins writing them out of the story. It's not enough that they take his goddamn daughter away from him on the basis that he's prospecting oil, which is fucking stupid in and of itself -- this is the story that decides Avalanche, the group Barret founded in response to Shinra murdering everyone in his hometown because they didn't want any competition in the form of coal, wasn't actually even Barret's. It was some other guy's, and grrrr he was a terrorist even more terroristier than OG Avalanche was because moral ambiguity is gonna go over our audience’s heads so let’s just make it nice and cleanly black and white for them. I've ranted about this before, but it's even worse that the fans seem to have no problem incorporating these changes into everything, because who gives a rat's ass about Barret, right? There was some dumb thing about Nanaki finding a girl catdog to have those babies he has in the epilogue, and the Ravens, but it's all just more of the same introducing samefaced teeny boppers that the fans love so much at the expense of everything else.

2. SPEAKING OF WHICH, Crisis Core, the king of samefaced teeny boppers consuming the franchise. I flipflop a lot on whether this one is the worst or not, but in addition to having the same problem as Before Crisis times fifty, I consider it as bad as it was because you could tell it could have been really good, and that's honestly heartbreaking. The first hour or so kicks things off with a really good start, introducing Zack as this cocksure jackass trying to make a name for himself, and his mentor Catchphrase Man. Then around the point where Banora gets firebombed it all sort of goes downhill, and you realise a lot of the credit you were giving it wasn't actually due. Zack being a gloryhound for Shinra and believing Soldier to be a bastion of good wasn't supposed to be a character flaw like it should've. Genesis almost singlehandedly ruins the entire thing by eating all the screentime in the word with his obnoxious motivations that made zero sense, and in a flashback we see he was always a fucking tool so there's no reason to feel sorry for him in the first place. He's actually secretly responsible for the iconic Nibelheim scene, of all fucking things (GENESIS DID NIBELHEIM would make a good bumper sticker). Tifa gets thirty seconds of screentime. Cloud doesn't fare much better, which is a seriously huge problem considering he's the goddamn protagonist of the entire franchise. He gets a single 49 second cutscene of them establishing "okay he's best friends with Zack" and then nothing else, ever, unless you want to count the three emails he sends him that you could tell were supposed to lead to more bonding cutscenes that were ultimately cut for more GENESIS, YOU LOVE HIM SO MUCH RIGHT GUYS??? Aeris fares even worse than Cloud and Tifa combined, being barely in it, and Square having decided that Zack actually made all her life decisions for her. That's right -- literally everything about her character? Zack did it. Fuck you.

It's also this high up for what it represents, I suppose -- in the fanbase, you see a whole lot of "Well, Cloud lost Zack and Aeris so now he has no friends and nothing else to live for in this world because he didn't really care about anyone else besides them". It seems everyone forgot that not only was there more to Cloud’s character than "his friends are dead so he’s sad” and his friends being dead was only a small part of it, but that there were seven other people we spent about sixty hours establishing in no uncertain terms that they loved him unconditionally and that he felt the same way. Crisis Core is what finally got people to start disregarding the rest of the main fucking cast from the OG, and it was very, very deliberate. An old unwashed man in his late thirties jaded about his future in spaceflight, a catdog with daddy issues, a black man with a character arc revolving around fatherhood, a triple agent paper-pusher that had a furry phase right in the middle of his midlife crisis, two women that are both alive and have agency of their own, and hell, even a young man with severe psychological issues that had a very strong bond with all of these people even though most of them aren't young and attractive white people and realises he can count on them all for support, are not as marketable as the cast of Crisis Core. Square knows this. You can't wring any sex appeal out of "happy supportive environment" or "female characters", since most of the fanbase tends to be straight women in their late teens and early twenties. So, everyone in both those categories gets shafted. And, as mentioned, the fans seem all to happy to run with this, given the overwhelming amount of material that seems to disregard everyone else in Cloud's life that wasn't Zack (and sometimes Aeris gets acknowledged because all she's good for anymore is a corpse to motivate Cloud) as unimportant, and not really his friends.

The fact that the entire game seems to undermine the original's tone very badly almost seems like a nitpick at this point next to very intentional racism and sexism and pandering, but I'm gonna bring that up too. The new version of Zack's death scene flies directly in the face with how they were handled in the original game, and is more in line with Cait Sith's than anything else's -- that death isn't heroic, or glorious, or profound. It's just sad and fucking hurts, and it's something that happens. They made that pretty clear the first time around when he just gets gunned down on a cliff in complete silence. You can practically hear the "so it goes" in the background. Naturally, this time around they gave him an entire speech about dreams an honour and then when he dies he goes to heaven (on a planet with no heaven) and he's successfully become a hero. Fucking bravo. Or the bit where, as has been pointed out, you have a wacky scene where Zack meets a young Yuffie, and she skips off amongst the corpses of her people that Zack himself just finished making in the name of glory and imperialism (not a character flaw, though! He’s a good guy!). There's an astounding lack of self-awareness in everything the game does.

AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GOOD, and that's why I still debate whether or not it belongs in the Worst spot or not. It could have been great to see a non 49-second version of the friendship that eventually motivated Zack to die for Cloud, but then they forgot to write it, because why write that when you could have these four cutscenes with Genesis? It would've been great to see Aeris and her relationship with running from Shinra that caused her to grow up street smart and how that caused Zack to maybe question Shinra's motivations, but them they forgot to write it because HEY LOOK HERE'S SOME MORE WING SYMBOLISM WITH ANGEAL DO YOU GET IT THERE'S ONLY ONE OF THEM AND HIS NAME IS SPELLED ALMOST LIKE ANGEL, I'M WORKING WITH GENESIS NOW HIS NAME MEANS BEGINNING LOL. It could have been great to see Tifa getting her start with Avalanche, but after her obligatory cameo in Nibelheim she's swallowed into the void again because they forgot she was ever anything besides Cloud's love interest, and fuck you we gotta show you this Genesis scene in Modeoheim. It could have been great to meet a younger Barret, and wonder how at odds he would've been with Zack, a man who's been drinking the Soldier kool-aid for years, but instead we got Genesis reciting poetry. It could have been great to see the workings of Soldier before it all went to shit, but instead we got fucking goddamn Genesis. Genesis Genesis Genesis. 90% of the screentime in this game that should've gone to developing Zack's character for one fucking second, let alone other things, just gets eaten up by Genesis. God I hate Genesis.

1. Dirge of Cerberus.

I'll try and keep this brief because I can go on about Dirge of Cerberus all fucking day if you let me.

If Crisis Core is terrible because it had the shadows of great ideas that were terribly mishandled in the name of turning a profit, Dirge is sort of its opposite, in that at no point did anything even remotely resembling a good idea come anywhere near the building this was being written in during the entirety of its production. It's bad. Thoroughly bad. There are no redeeming qualities. It's ugly, it plays badly, 90% of it is cutscenes* and the remaining 10% is invisible walls, the plot is a fucking mess by anyone's standards whether you're familiar with the franchise or not, it is the reigning fucking king of tone issues, the design choices are the worst of what Nomura has to offer by a country mile, and the characters are the worst Square has ever made in the Final Fantasy series.

Vincent is the protagonist, and since he just wants a nap and is too cool to care that means you don't really give a rat's ass about what's going on either, which you wouldn't have anyway, because Dirge's plot isn't so much rife with plot holes as it is a giant, gaping hole, where bits of plot occasionally drift by, mangled beyond recognition by the plane crash in 1976 that claimed their lives. Did you know there was an even more secreter army living under Midgar that somehow survived the entire city being demolished with cosmic hellfire, a pandemic with no cure, and a giant sword battle dropping more debris on them? Did you know Hojo actually didn't die, he invented the internet in 30 seconds in his death throes and then invented the technology to upload minds to computers, AKA created a fucking goddamn technological singularity, and then uploaded himself in a .zip file until he could blow up the world for shits and giggles completely unrelated to anything even remotely having to do with Jenova? Did you know Lucrecia wasn't actually a terrible person that willingly carried Hojo's child and injected it with science juice for the sake of their careers, but was actually a really nice lady and is really sorry you guys, and was just an unwilling womb for Sephiroth to be birthed from, and was pretty much the Madonna? Did you know that apparently the Actual Goddamn Apocalypse wasn't enough to convince the Planet it was dying, but someone stabbing a few thousand people was? Did you know Reeve decided to call the events of the main game the "Jenova Wars" because he doesn't actually know what a war is? Did you know mako actually makes you live forever instead of giving you brain damage and killing you? Did you know the Lifestream is pretty much the same thing as the internet? Did you know Vincent was a paedophile? Did you know someone decided Genesis still needed to be fucking alive?

Oh yeah, and also there are such stellar characters such as Red the Red, Blue the Blue, White the Clean, Black the I-Have-A-Jockstrap-Taped-Over-My-Mouth-Because-Fuck-You-Why-Not, and Orange the Clear, who is physically 9 years old but mentally 19 so it's totally not paedophilia if we have a weird romance between her and Vincent (never mind that if we're going by that logic, you now have a 19 year-old dating a 61 year-old, which is... not a whole lot better.)

And hey, remember that one scene where Shalua completely unnecessarily died by holding a door she could've easily ducked through, and then she pissed herself upon death, and the game took the time to show the piss puddle, and Yuffie was super upset about it despite the fact that they never interacted even once but the writers forgot about that, and then after all that shit she didn't even die in her own melodramatic death scene, and then she did die anyway at the end of the game and all you can think about is the piss and god Shalua is so fucking pointless and looks so fucking stupid. Look at this hot mess:

She’s a scientist! Or something.

Even by Final Fantasy standards these designs are fucking ridiculous.

There is nothing redeeming about this game. It's like a gift that keeps on giving -- every time I look back at it, I discover a new plothole that I didn't catch the first time before. It's easier to hate than Crisis Core, though, which just makes me sad. At least Dirge never had anything going for it in the first place. I paid two bucks for my copy and I still feel ripped off.

* Okay, that’s an exaggeration -- 50% of it is cutscenes. Four hours out of an eight hour game is cutscenes. Do you realise how fucking many cutscenes that is? It’s a lot. (And yet not one of them has any plot in them HEYOOOO)

#forfdorfsorf #Squid Alienates VII Fans #man fuck dirge

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themattress · 7 years

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7 Lights - The Unsung Heroes of Kingdom Hearts’ Writing

To provide a counter-balance to the negativity of this post of mine, here’s a post that names and celebrates the people responsible for the good writing that the Kingdom Heart series used to have before the whole creative process became monopolized by Nomura and Oka.

Shinji Hashimoto - This is the guy who got it all started, the Squaresoft executive who wanted to make a game with Disney and seized his chance when he happened to take an elevator ride with a Disney executive. He was the chief producer for the first three - and best - games in the Kingdom Hearts series: Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts II. I believe that he, moreso than Nomura, deserves credit as the creator of Kingdom Hearts...even Nomura was only able to make up the concepts of the story because Hashimoto hired him to do so. After those games, Hashimoto has receded into the title of “Executive Producer”, and the franchise has been worse off for it. Come back to us, Shinji!

Hironobu Sakauchi - The creator of Final Fantasy and Executive Producer for the original Kingdom Hearts prior to his departure from Square. During that game, he was on hand to help Hashimoto and Nomura whenever they needed his RPG-making expertise. At first, the game’s story was extremely simple in order to appeal to Disney’s usual target audience of kids, but Hashimoto said that if it doesn’t go deeper and on the level of Final Fantasy then it will fail. Thus the story was given an appropriate level of depth...and the keyword is appropriate, the kind of depth that Sakauchi put into his Final Fantasy stories. When Sakauchi was gone, Nomura took the advice in the wrong way and made the story convoluted on the level of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, mistaking needless complexities and overwrought details for depth. But with Sakauchi’s style, the pieces of the puzzle actually fit together, and the story of Kingdom Hearts was more interesting as a result.

Eri Morimoto - A production assistant from Square. To quote Jun Akiyama from an interview conducted after the original game’s release: “He is famous within the company for loving Disney, and during production he would sometimes say, "This is different" to the director and not allow him to do certain things.” Now, how many games was he around for? Just the original trilogy of KH, CoM and KH2! And when he left, the way Disney was handled in the series took a very noticeable downturn, being phased out (along with the Final Fantasy elements) in favor of Nomura’s original concepts and characters holding dominance. Coincidence? I think not! Without a Disney fanatic like Morimoto to stand up to him, Nomura could get away with marginalizing most of the Disney elements besides Mickey and Yen Sid.

Keiko Nobumoto - Head writer of Cowboy Bebop and creator of Wolf’s Rain, two of the most critically acclaimed anime series ever, accessible due to the simplicity they have on the outside and beloved for the great inner depth they gradually reveal. Brought on to be the Scenario Supervisor of the original Kingdom Hearts, she made certain that its story was very much in the same style, conveying a charming simplicity that conceals depth of plot and character that becomes more apparent as the game progresses. Sora, Kairi and Riku are all human, three-dimensional characters who provide neat twists on their respective archetypes, the thematic elements and character development is done in a way that it sneaks up on you and only fully sinks in at the climax at Hollow Bastion, and the mysteries are left vague enough to allow many theories and interpretations, but their presentation kept simple enough to not be distracting. It all makes the story of Kingdom Hearts the best one in the franchise (unless, of course, you count the united story of KH, CoM, and KH2, which is even better.)

Jun Akiyama - The main scenario writer and Event Director of the original Kingdom Hearts, which meant he was in charge of not only creating the story but deciding upon how it is presented visually. Being a very cinematically inclined person, Akiyama was the perfect choice for the job. He was also a Disney fan (he begged for the job because he recently saw and loved Disney’s Tarzan), and was always conscious of making sure each Disney world’s plot wasn’t just a copy of the movies but was solidly linked with the overarching, original plot of the game, and that they serviced the needs of the KH universe that Nomura had created. He also was fond of inserting Disney-esque humor into scenes, such as Donald entering through a small door within a larger one, the Gummi Ship dropping out of a trap door just when it looked like it was about to exit through a different way, Donald pulling the camera down to face him and shortly afterward getting smashed against a wall by Yuffie slamming the door open on him. Speaking of which, we owe Yuffie’s inclusion in the game to Akiyama, who was in charge of her events in FF7 and was always fond of her. I really miss this guy. Masaru Oka, who now has his job, is about as far from his standard of quality as possible.

Daisuke Watanabe - The second-best writer in the franchise beyond Jun Akiyama is Daisuke Watanabe. After writing the cult classic Threads of Fate, Watanabe was brought on to assist Kazushige Nojima in writing the draft for Final Fantasy X’s scenario. It was after this that he became the secondary scenario writer of Kingdom Hearts, assisting Akiyama from the start of the story up to the climactic events at Hollow Bastion. Following work on Final Fantasy X-2, Watanabe was brought on as the scenario writer of Chain of Memories, which he did excellently at save for several missteps in Riku’s story mode, and he (along with perpetual writing assistant Harunori Sakemi) also contributed to Nojima’s base draft of Kingdom Hearts II’s scenario. Clearly on a roll, Watanabe was then asked to write the scenario for Birth by Sleep, while also supervising Coded and 358/2 Days to ensure their BBS references lined up. But something went wrong...namely, Final Fantasy XIII, which he had to go work on after only finishing the full plot draft of BBS, leaving the actual scenario to Masaru Oka (Ugh!) And tragically, Watanabe has never been involved with the KH franchise again, even though it’s very evident from the results of his work that he was a great asset to it. He is sorely missed.

Amanda Jun Katsurada - This is the most obscure name on the list, but she was the Localization Specialist of the original Kingdom Hearts, which means that she wrote the translated English script. I personally don’t think the two who have come after her, Brian Gray and Jyun Takagi, have been able to match up to her work. Many of the choices Katsurada made benefited the game greatly, such as changing the Princesses of Heart from “hearts without darkness”, which is contradictory and impossible, to just “the purest of hearts” (basically hearts with the least amount of darkness), making certain Disney characters’ dialogue more in line with their characters elsewhere, writing the message on the machine in End of the World to be more mysterious and creepy rather than rambling and needlessly specific, and cutting out a weird inner-thought line of Kairi’s in the ending FMV that kind of threw the whole thing off. The series could use more localizing decisions like this.

#Disney #Square Enix #Kingdom Hearts #Analysis

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Tetsuya Nomura Reveals New Details on Final Fantasy VII Remake

March 4, 2020 6:50 PM EST

Tetsuya Nomura revealed new details on Final Fantasy VII Remake including its story changes, theme song, character designs, and battle system.

As we’re getting closer to the launch of Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix finally unleashed the game’s demo on the PlayStation Store. Japanese outlets Famitsu and 4Gamer each published interviews with Tetsuya Nomura as well, revealing an Avalanche of brand new details. We most notably heard more about Cloud’s crossdressing event, the lack of characters from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and how the game went gold. Here are all the other interesting tidbits from the latest Final Fantasy VII Remake interviews with Tetsuya Nomura, translated below.

First are details on Hollow, Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s theme song:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Hollow uses a male lyricist and is rock-themed in order to reflect Cloud’s feelings. The song is supposed to evoke rain, and I wanted to avoid changes in the song’s image depending on the language, so we only recorded an English version. The lyrics were written by Nobuo Uematsu and Kazushige Nojima, who was really into it. When Nojima wrote the lyrics in Japanese, he titled the song “Empty Sky”, and when translating the lyrics, the official title became Hollow.”

Next on the list is the character design. Back in June 2019 during the E3 period, Tetsuya Nomura lengthily spoke about Tifa and Aerith’s designs in another interview we translated. Nomura now mentioned how the very first character redesigned for the Remake was Barret.

Tetsuya Nomura: “The amount of realism added to Barret’s design compared to his original design served as a guideline on how much realism to add for remaking the other characters’ designs. As for Red XIII, his original design surprisingly already looked quite realistic, so we simply recreated it with more details, and he didn’t change much. In the past though, he equipped a hair ornament as a weapon, but this time, we changed it to being his collar so it’s more visible. The three Turks members were redesigned by Roberto Ferrari. Since they all wear simple suits, we added more details to better express their personalities.”

Coming up next are new comments regarding the Japanese cast. Nomura explained how Red XIII had very few lines in Advent Children, so he was voiced by Masachika Ichimura making a special appearance. Ichimura is more of an actor than a seiyuu, and the only major character he voices is Pokemon‘s Mewtwo. Since Red XIII has many lines in the Remake, the development team decided to recast the role. Red XIII is now voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi, a veteran seiyuu known for many anime and game roles including Ranma.

Tetsuya Nomura: “Red XIII is a character who needs a voice who can handle a wide variety of tones, and I thought Kappei Yamaguchi was perfect for that, so we picked him.”

Nomura also spoke about Cloud and Tifa’s voices during the flashbacks of their childhood:

Tetsuya Nomura: “We had a lot of trouble finding someone who fitted Young Cloud’s voice. In the end, we decided on a child living in a rural area. They came to Tokyo with their parents to record. I’m happy we were so meticulous and patient with the casting because their voice was perfect. It matches the delicateness, cuteness, the husky feeling, and the shadowy voice Cloud had at that age. Tifa, voiced by Ayumi Ito, has a cute but husky-like voice, but we managed to find someone who fitted that for Young Tifa right away.”

Nomura also highly praised Masahiro Kobayashi, the actor who voices Barret:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Barret is someone so badass he decided to replace his lost arm with a weapon. The extreme way of voicing him that Masahiro Kobayashi did fits perfectly. He really got into the character, without the need for directions, and most of the lines were one takes. Barret is really charismatic and interesting in the Remake. I tend to like old guys characters like him, and he’s my favorite”.

Lastly, we have Cloud:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Cloud in Final Fantasy VII Remake is weird. There are many times when he tries to act cool but fails or acts awkwardly. He gets nervous where most people wouldn’t. This might surprise you, as the Cloud in Advent Children was cool. But that’s because it was post-FFVII Cloud, plus we were limited, so we focused on emphasizing his cool side. However, in the original game, Cloud had many comical or lame moments, and this is what we went for with the Remake. I asked Takahiro Sakurai, who voices Cloud, to reflect that in his acting. I hope you’ll enjoy it.”

We recently translated an interview with Takahiro Sakurai chatting about voicing Cloud in FF7R.

Next, Tetsuya Nomura spoke about the new characters found in Final Fantasy VII Remake. One of the new characters, Soldier Third Class Roche, was designed by Roberto Ferrari.

Tetsuya Nomura: “I didn’t give any particular instructions for Roche’s design, and Ferrari had already done the first version, so we only changed it a bit before finalizing it. His first design was a bit too sharp and serious-looking compared to his easygoing personality. There are many other new characters besides Roche, but they mostly appear in sidestories rather than in the main story.”

Next, Tetsuya Nomura spoke about Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s graphic style:

Tetsuya Nomura: “It’s close to a photorealistic style, but it’s also different. Many iconic elements of the original were in the deformed style, so the Remake uses “realisticness in the range of the original’s deformed style”. ”

We also have comments on the battle system of FFVIIR:

Tetsuya Nomura: “I already mentioned this in the past, but since development began, we redid the battle system many times. Real-time and ATB are inherently opposed, so fusing both necessitated a lot of trial and error. I can’t thank enough the staff who persevered and shaped the battle system into what it is now, overcoming this challenge and managing to find the right balance.”

Nomura also mentioned how they included many different battle situations and enemy patterns, including flying enemies and a 3D element. This way, controlling Cloud at all times isn’t the most efficient way do handle things, and it’ll make players experiment with the other characters. He also mentioned the Remake has a lot of mini-bosses to let us fully enjoy the battle system. He also spoke about how the battles are incredibly vivid, be it the various effects when using magic or all the battle dialogue:

Tetsuya Nomura: “We heavily focused on the game’s atmosphere and immersion during battles. Maybe we overdid it when it comes to dialogue during battles (laughs). Recording everything was pretty difficult. At peak period we had up to 9 recording sessions a week, dividing them between two or three different studios. It might be the game with the most voiced lines I’ve worked on. Overall, in over 20 years of game development, Final Fantasy VII Remake was probably the most grueling project I worked on (laughs)”

Having the characters speak so much during battles was an idea from Motomu Toriyama, the co-director of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

The overall reception at events and from the debug team was very positive, and Nomura is confident in the game. He pointed out how the Remake‘s objective is to both satisfy the old fans and make players who never experience the original get why it’s so great. Next, Tetsuya Nomura shared details regarding the scale of Final Fantasy VII Remake, story changes, and new events:

Tetsuya Nomura: “I know many are worried since the Remake project is in multiple games, and the first game only depicts Midgar. Don’t worry. It’s a highly dense game, and it doesn’t end after a few hours like the Midgar part in the original. There are many new events in the main story. Like a scene where you end up visiting Jessie’s parents, eating dinner. Each member of Avalanche is much more detailed compared to the original game, with new events to boot. By the time players leave Midgar, I’m sure they’ll be satisfied.”

Some content also didn’t make it into the final game, and yet it’s still on 2 Blu-ray discs. Nomura explained the development team prioritized quality over quantity:

Tetsuya Nomura: “We made the sidequest content to be as big as the main story. At the beginning, the development team readied even more content, but we wouldn’t have been able to do everything without cutting corners, so we prioritized quality. We wouldn’t have been able to finish the game otherwise. Despite that, the game is quite big, there are many places you can visit, and you can even move around using vehicles at some points.”

We also heard about another iconic scene, the Shinra HQ building infiltration scene, and how its stairs climbing part was recreated in the Remake:

Tetsuya Nomura: “Each character climbs the stairs at a different speed, and the dialogues changes depending on what you do as well, so you should try and experiment.”

Lastly, here is Tetsuya Nomura’s message for the fans and everyone looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Remake:

Tetsuya Nomura: “The Remake will be releasing soon, but it’s not like it’s overwriting the original FFVII. The original game is the source of everything, and thanks to it, we were able to make a new, unique experience. Fans of the original game will have a different, new experience compared to when they played the original. And I hope those who discover everything with the Remake will enjoy it too. This is the first part of the Remake, but it’s still a full-fledged game, and you’ll be satisfied after playing it. Once you try out the game, you’ll definitely have a hard time putting it down. Please look forward to it.”

That’s all regarding Tetsuya Nomura’s comments on Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s highly likely such lengthy Japanese interviews with actual new details won’t be happening until the game’s launch. Famitsu will definitely have a huge feature on the game the week of its release, so look forward to our future coverage as well.

You can check out the latest Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer, the opening cutscene, and the latest screenshots. Be sure to take a look at our gameplay preview, our other preview, and the results of the Final Fantasy series fan poll organized by NHK.

Final Fantasy VII Remake launches on PS4 on April 10. It was born through the efforts of a cosmopolitan team and is one of the most anticipated games in years. The game will be a PS4 exclusive until April 2021. If you enjoy our coverage, translations, and wish to support DuaShockers, you can do so by preordering FF7R on Amazon.

This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.

March 4, 2020 6:50 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/tetsuya-nomura-reveals-new-details-on-final-fantasy-vii-remake/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tetsuya-nomura-reveals-new-details-on-final-fantasy-vii-remake

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